How To Improve Website Performance

A fast, easy-to-navigate ecommerce website can be the difference between making a sale and losing a customer. Learn how to optimize your website’s performance.

If you sell goods online, your website is likely the public face of your company. For many customers, it’ll serve as the first impression of your brand, which makes website performance incredibly important. Factors like site speed, image compression, and page load time affect the user experience and influence a visitor's judgment as they weigh whether to give you their business.

Whether you run your online business via a complex WordPress site or use an all-in-one ecommerce service like Shopify, here are some actionable ways to improve your website performance.

Benefits of good website performance

• User experience (UX)
• SEO ranking
• Improved conversion rates
• Optimized mobile experience
• Cost efficiency

From loading speed to on-site functionality, a website’s performance leaves a sizable impression on the browsing public. Here are the most important reasons to care about the performance of your ecommerce web pages.

User experience (UX)

Site speed matters to users. A fast website creates a better user experience (UX), reducing bounce rates and keeping visitors engaged. Studies show that users are more likely to abandon a website if the site's pages take too long to load; the patience threshold is approximately three seconds on both desktop and mobile devices.

SEO ranking 

A site’s performance plays a role in search engine optimization (SEO) rankings. That’s because search engines like Google consider website speed as a ranking factor. This means that faster websites tend to feature higher in search engine results pages (SERPs), while slow websites are downgraded. Improving your page load times could result in better search visibility, and therefore more organic traffic.

Improved conversion rates 

Better web performance can lead to higher conversion rates. Whether they’re making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or adding items to a wish list, users are more likely to complete these actions on a website that loads quickly. In fact, we recently conducted research that found that even a half-second improvement in site speed can increase conversion rates. That’s why we’ve invested so heavily in making Shopify stores the fastest in the world. Our research also shows that our stores render 1.8x faster than stores on other platforms—and 93% of businesses on Shopify have a fast store, more than any other major commerce platform. 

Optimized mobile experience

With a growing number of users accessing websites via mobile devices. Website performance, particularly optimized for mobile, is therefore an increasingly important way for an online business to keep up with the competition. Additionally, Google values mobile site performance in its search rankings, so a fast-loading mobile site is essential for both searchability and retaining mobile users.

Cost efficiency

Improved performance often leads to reduced hosting costs, especially if your hosting provider charges on a sliding scale based on bandwidth usage. Optimizing images, using browser caching techniques, and minimizing unnecessary code or plugins can reduce HTTP requests and web server load, potentially reducing hosting expenses.

Learn more: How Reducing Costs Helps Your Ecommerce Business Grow

Tools to measure website performance

Website owners have numerous tools at their disposal to measure their site’s core web vitals, speed, and overall performance. These tools include:

• Shopify Web Performance dashboard: Our dashboard for Liquid storefronts lets users review and optimize real user experience through extensive views into store speed, stability, and interactivity. This increased view into actual interactions provides a better understanding of real-world performance in conjunction with site speed.
• Lighthouse (Chrome DevTools): Integrated into Chrome DevTools, Lighthouse audits web pages on performance, accessibility, SEO, and more. It provides a detailed report with suggestions to enhance website performance, accessibility, and user experience.
• Google PageSpeed Insights: PageSpeed Insights is a free tool from Google that evaluates your website’s page speed and provides suggestions to make it faster. Powered by the Chrome User Experience Report (CrUX) dataset, PSI reports metrics like First Contentful Paint (FCP), First Input Delay (FID), Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS).
• GTmetrix: GTmetrix analyzes your site's speed and provides a detailed report, including page load time, total page size, and number of requests. It also offers actionable recommendations to optimize performance, such as optimizing images, leveraging browser caching, and minifying CSS and JavaScript files.
• Pingdom: Pingdom offers a comprehensive website speed test that identifies what web page elements might negatively impact performance. It provides actionable recommendations to improve page load speed and site responsiveness.
• WebPageTest: WebPageTest is a free tool that allows you to run a website speed test from multiple locations around the globe using real browsers. It provides a waterfall chart, performance grades, and detailed reports on various aspects impacting your site’s speed.
• YSlow:YSlow, an open-source browser extension, grades web pages based on Yahoo!’s rules for high-performance websites, provides statistics and analyses of crucial metrics, as well as suggestions for improving page performance. 
• New Relic: New Relic is a website speed optimization tool that provides insights into real-time performance metrics, application health, and user satisfaction. It helps identify bottlenecks and website speed issues so you can optimize for better performance.

How to improve website performance

As an online retailer, you cannot afford to lose clients due to poor user experience. By embracing performance testing and taking action based on test results, you can improve site performance and keep customers happy. Here’s how:

• Utilize a content delivery network (CDN): Content delivery networks distribute your website's content across multiple servers globally to reduce latency and improve loading times for users worldwide.
• Optimize core web vitals metrics: Pay attention to metrics like Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) to enhance user experience and meet Google's Core Web Vitals standards.
• Use browser caching: Set caching policies for static files, enabling browsers to store these files locally. When multiple files are stored in a browser cache, it reduces the need for repeated downloads.
• Minimize external resources: When your website makes an HTTP request, it must send information back and forth from multiple servers before the page can fully render. Reduce reliance on external scripts and resources to limit the number of HTTP requests, thus improving loading speed.
• Optimize static files and web fonts: Compress and optimize static files, including JavaScript (JS) files and web fonts, to decrease load times.
• Conduct regular speed testing: Utilize speed testing tools like Google PageSpeed Insights, GTmetrix, or Pingdom to regularly evaluate your website's performance and make necessary optimizations.
• Weigh your server hosting options: When it comes to hosting providers, choose between dedicated servers, virtual private servers (VPS), and cloud server hosting based on your website traffic and performance needs. Leasing server space can add up; having dedicated web servers will be the fastest but also most expensive option. 
• Reduce render-blocking resources: Identify and modify or defer render-blocking resources, like JS files that hinder quick page rendering.
• Pursue database optimization: Optimize database queries, server response times, and ensure efficient utilization of server space to improve overall website speed.
• Minimize your site’s HTTP requests: Combine multiple files, reduce unnecessary redirects, and employ techniques like file minification to reduce the number of HTTP requests required to load a page.
• Utilize temporary storage locations: Use a temporary storage location to cache frequently accessed data, reducing the load on the server and enhancing page load times.
• Proceed cautiously when implementing third-party tools: Be selective with third-party tools and scripts to avoid negatively impacting load times.
• Monitor performance: Regularly monitor website performance using analytics tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console to identify areas for improvement.
• Reduce Time to First Byte (TTFB): Optimize your web servers and content management systems (CMS) to reduce TTFB, which affects how quickly the browser receives the first byte of data from the server. Use our Site Speed Audit to see how your website is performing today.
• Optimize image sizes: Compress and reduce image size without compromising quality. This cuts down on the overall page size and improves load times.

Improve website performance FAQ

What makes a website fast or slow?

The speed of a website is primarily determined by factors such as optimized content, efficient server responses, minimized HTTP requests, and streamlined resource delivery.

How do you know if your website is performing well?

You can determine if your website is performing well by assessing factors like load times, user input response times, user engagement, conversion rates, and compliance with performance benchmarks such as Core Web Vitals and search engine rankings.

What is considered good website speed?

A good website speed is typically considered to be under 3 seconds for full page load, although aiming for even faster load times is often ideal for optimal user experience.